WASLI is committed to the development of the sign language interpreting profession worldwide
Dear Colleagues
It has been some time since you have had news from WASLI so this email is to give you news of the things that have been happening as well as some of the highlights of the work of the WASLI Executive Board. Enjoy catching up ...
WASLI AUSTRALASIA & OCEANIA
WASLI at SLIANZ 2009 - NEW ZEALAND
The report on the SLIANZ conference is available in the SLIANZ newsletter (Aug 2009). Among the many highlights of the conference was the SLIANZ Inaugural Skills Auction which raised NZD$3585.00 to support a project that aided a Deaf/hearing team from Fiji to go to the Solomon Islands. To read more about the conference you can find this report at
http://slianz.org.nz/index.php?page=newsletters SLIANZ is also on FACEBOOK
www.slianz.org.uk WASLI at ASLIA 2009 - AUSTRALIA
George Major (WASLI Regional Representative for Australasia & Oceania) attended the ASLIA 2009 Conference in Melbourne, Australia. She reports that "the ASLIA conference was very big this year - 250 delegates. I made lots of good contacts, and I gave a WASLI presentation. My presentation was part of a 'global perspectives' panel, and included reports from the sponsored delegates (from Fiji, Cambodia, Uganda, and Thailand). I also got to represent WASLI and welcome the sponsored interpreters at a special welcome event for them. I think they learnt a lot from attending ASLIA and likewise the Aussie interpreters learnt a lot from them, and ASLIA will continue the "Creating Opportunities" fund for next year. In my presentation I reported that SLIANZ raised $3,500 for a project in the Solomon Islands. So they went ahead and held a skills auction and raised $7,000! It is becoming clear to me that interpreters in our region are very generous when it comes to WASLI projects where the money stays in our region or is coordinated by our region. ASLIA and SLIANZ had a meeting at the conference about how to work together more on fundraising for interpreters in developing countries, so things are progressing well." G Major
http://aslia.com.au/ WASLI 2010 Executive Board Meeting
The WASLI Executive Board plan to hold their 2010 meeting in Australia to coincide with ASLIA 2010. More to follow . . .
WASLI NORTH AMERICA
WASLI at RID 2009 - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WASLI Executive Board members Deb Russell (Regional Representative for North America) and Daniel Burch (WASLI Treasurer) as well as José Luis BRIEVA (Regional Representative for Latino America) attended the RID 2009 Conference in Philadelphia. WASLI held a reception during the conference which was successful and the we received news of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the President of RID and NAD (National Association of the Deaf). This document has been uploaded (with permission) to the WASLI website, go to
www.wasli.org and click on JOINT AGREEMENTS. RID is now on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.
www.rid.org More to follow . . .
WASLI EUROPE
WASLI at efsli 2009 - TALLINN, ESTONIA
www.efsli.org Marco Nardi (Regional Representative Europe) will be attending the efsli 2009 conference next week. The theme of the conference this year is "Sound Mind Sound Hands"
http://www.evkty.ee/eng_efsli2009/index.html and the conference will bring over 170 participants from 28 countries. Marco will report on this in an upcoming newsletter. Other news is that there is a new Interpreter Association in Poland - APSLI. The President is Aleksandra Kalata-Zawlocki. Also AFILS - the French Association of Sign Language Interpreters
http://www.afils.fr/ will celebrate 30 years in Oct 2009. The European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (efsli) ran 2 successful training schools bringing sign language interpreters together from around Europe. The spring school was held in Malta and the summer school in Croatia. The 2010 training school programme is in the planning. More to follow . . .
WASLI ASIA Training Seminar in Malaysia
Deb Russell is not long back from being involved in an Interpreter Training Seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The seminar brought sign language interpreters together from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Macau, Philippines and Ireland. "The seminar was focused on language analysis and we looked at the national sign language used in Malaysia, BIM. I worked with three amazing Deaf language models who were fantastic. When it came to practice, several of the countries had Deaf people from their own country so could adapt the role plays to that, and generally all of the people were able to analyze the BIM, despite linguistic differences." D Russell
More news from the region is that there is a new Interpreter Association in Pakistan - PASLI and the first President is Ms Fazla Shamim. In Japan, the NRASLI (National Research Association of Sign Language Interpreters
http://www.zentsuken.net/en/index.html has begun to do some research. With a subsidy from the national government, they want "to clarify the situation of Deaf people in their workplace. For example, whether there are any providing system of sign language interpreters when Deaf people are employed, or need to attend meetings or lectures at their workplace and also who pays for the interpreter. Also if Deaf people want an interpreter to have a serious conversation with their boss or colleague or president, to whom do they see to request the interpreter and who pays?".
I Tadashi Emiko Ichikawa (Regional Representative Asia) reports that she attended the Annual NRASLI conference over the summer. Last year at this event, she was successful in raising funds to support the work of WASLI. More to follow . . .
WASLI LATINO AMERICA
WASLI at the 1st Conference for Latin American Sign Language Interpreters - BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
WASLI Vice President, Juan Druetta, WASLI Executive Board Member, Marco Nardi and Regional Representative José Luis Brieva represented WASLI at this inaugural event. The report from this event is still being prepared for the WASLI Executive Board but one highlight of this event was the formation of a new forum FLSLI - Forum of Latin Sign Language Interpreters. "On the 10th of July 2009 in Bogota, Colombia during the 6th Congress of Latin American Deaf people and the 1st Congress of Latin American Sign Language Interpreters it was announced that under the patronage and with help from WASLI (and with the presence of representatives from WFD) the Forum of Latino Sign Language Interpreters was established.
"This is a Forum that will be opened to all interpreters in the "Americas" (and possibly further afield) that self identify themselves as "Latino". Initially, step by step, they will initiate as a virtual group (mailing list/e-group) one open to everyone and one for the representative selected by established associations." - M Nardi
The Vice President has also made a visit to Venezuela and very shortly will be travelling to Paraguay to attend the Seminar "Sign Language and Interpretation Services for the Social Inclusion of Deaf People - 21-22 Sept 2009" in Asuncion. José will be travelling to Bolivia later on the year. We look forward to their reports on developments there. The WASLI 2009 Executive Board Meeting will be taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina 6-7 Nov 2009.
WASLI AFRICA
Interim Regional Representative
The WASLI Executive Board has appointed Jack Owiti
africa2@wasli.org of Kenya as the interim Regional Representative for Africa and you can read about him at
http://www.wasli.org/WASLIBoard_Rep_Africa.htm "I bring to the WASLI board 10 years experience working as an Interpreter in Kenya, experience setting up a national association for interpreters, developing training curricula for various interpreting settings and adaptation of the code of ethics. I am delighted to share the above with my fellow interpreters in the African continent." J Owiti
Other news is of an Interpreter Association in Lesotho - NASLIL (Contact: K'hacha Emmanuel Ramokoatsi) There is another new Interpreter Association in Mozambique - ASILS (Contact is the Coordinator Nehemiah Giberto). What is also exciting news is the formation of SASLIA - a forum of sign language interpreters from the South Africa countries. At their last meeting representatives attended from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho and Malawi. The aim of SASLIA is to promote the interest and welfare of Sign Language Interpreters and the recognition of the profession in the member countries.The objectives are to:·
To ensure efficient sign language interpreting service delivery to both deaf and hearing communities.·
To encourage and promote scientific and pedagogical initiatives that improves standards of sign language interpreting.·
To provide support to national assessment of sign language interpreting.·
To be a support network for interpreter trainers, trainees, beneficiaries and providers of interpreting services.·
To encourage the sharing of knowledge and experience among the member countries.·
To liaise with the relevant stakeholders.·
To standardize and regulate sign language interpreting in the member countries.
More to follow . . .
WASLI BALKANS
Sign Language Recognised in Macedonia
On 18 Aug 2009 the Government and Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia adopted the Law on Sign Language. According to the Commission of Sign Language of the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Macedonia 'this is an historic moment for Deaf people in Macedonia because Sign Language is recognised as a language equal to other languages.' A sign language interpreter from Croatia, will be attending the efsli 2009 conference thanks to the efsli SAF - Special Attendance Fund. The SAF also made funds available for a colleague from Bulgaria to attend but in the end she was not able to attend.
WASLI Regional Representative, Selman Hoti (Kosovo) will be travelling to Helsinki shortly at the invitation of WFD to participate and lecture at a training seminar."I will lecture on Sign Language Interpreting and share experience on developing the sign language interpreter training program in Kosovo. Also i will present about WASLI (Overview of WASLI) and i have been asked to have brief discussion on the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities) - Article 9." (this refers to provision of sign language interpreters). S Hoti More to follow . . .
WASLI TRANSCAUCASIA & OCEANIA
Sign Language Interpreters to be honoured every year - UKRAINE
20 May 2009 will go down forever in history of the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf -- from now on every year on this day we shall honour those people, without whom it is absolutely impossible to imagine a full life of modern deaf man - sign language interpreters. (Decision on approval of 20 May SL Interpreter's Day was taken at the Plenary Session of the IV plenum of the USD this year)
WASLI
WASLI Task Groups
The 2 WASLI Task Groups ('Education and Training' headed by Deb Russell and 'Certification and Assessment' headed by Daniel Burch) have begun their discussions and work. Updates on the work of each task group will be coming shortly and will be reported in an upcoming newsletter. WASLI 2011 - WASLI is still working towards finalising dates for the 2011 conference. As soon as we have further details, we will let you know.
WEBSITE: Check the WASLI website regularly as it is updated regularly
www.wasli.orgMEMBERSHIP: WASLI membership is slowly increasing. Thanks to all those who have become members - thank you for your support. We need more so please promote membership as much as you can so that it can assist us doing the work that needs to be done ....
Best wishes Zane HEMA
WASLI Secretary
secretary@wasli.orgwww.wasli.orgSKYPE: zanehema
